


dark of night, baby, I love you

by cutelystylinson



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Insecure Louis, Insomnia AU, Love, M/M, Shy Zayn, roommates au, zouis romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-20 14:18:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2431907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutelystylinson/pseuds/cutelystylinson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis just wants to go to bed but he's got a million things on his mind and Zayn's breathing sounds like music.</p><p>Or, Louis has insomnia and Zayn has a crush. They're flatmates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dark of night, baby, I love you

**Author's Note:**

> Never written a Zouis fic before, but since they're my BROTP I wanted to try a romance.

The first night, Louis played it off as having been looking for a midnight snack. He'd been sitting in their tiny kitchen eating a bowl of Coco Pops and teasing the cat when Zayn idled in, hair tussled and pants hanging low on his hips.

"What are you doing?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. The cat, Charcoal, leapt down from the counter and scurried over to her technical owner. Zayn picked her up for a few minutes that she spent snuggled into his neck.

Louis, on the other hand, felt like he was drowning. "I-uh, hungry."

"I-uh, hungry?"

Louis cleared his throat nervously. "I got hungry. And lonely. I'm a cat lady, Zayn."

The quick joke made the boy laugh, which Louis had been making his goal ever since they moved in together. Bills were tough and Louis was extremely desperate for help. Since all his friends were either at uni or still at home in mum and dad's basement, he was desperate enough to put out flyers on every streetlamp on his block. Two days later had a young black haired boy in a rag-y t-shirt on Louis' doorstep, first months rent and an easel in his arms. He explained to Louis he'd just moved out from his parents, winter was coming, and he needed a place to live. Call Louis flippant with safety, but the boy -who became Zayn Malik- moved in the next day.

"If you're a cat lady then that means I'm a cat lady," Zayn smiled, tilting his head to the side like he does when he's tired.

Louis shrugged, thankful that the conversation was drifting away from the first subject to who even knows where now. "We're cat women."

Zayn just shook his head at him, clapped him on the shoulder, and told him to come to bed soon. Then he left. Charcoal jumped onto the chair next to him and curled up, and Louis sighed in frustration and threw his spoon in the sink.

-

It didn't take long for Zayn to figure it out, but it was sooner than Louis hoped and expected. Saturday morning when Zayn knocked on Louis' door and asked him if pancakes were good for breakfast and Louis was already dressed and on his laptop.

"Blueberry?" Zayn asked. "Not like we could have cereal, unless it's three-thirty in the morning."

The only thing Louis could do was force a nervous little giggle that cracked halfway through. Zayn raised an eyebrow.

"Babe," he'd taken to calling Louis that about a month since he moved in. It didn't bother Louis much so he hasn't said anything. "When was the last time you slept for more than three hours?"

Louis shook his head, tears springing to his eyes. He's just so _tired_ , and he doesn't want Zayn to tease him like his sisters did. "I was like five years old."

Zayn's confident stature crumpled before him. " _Louis_."

"I know, Zayn. I'm weird. I've heard it all so whatever comment you'd like to make I'd appreciate if you would keep it to yourself."

"Louis, what do you think, I'm going to make fun of you and move out?" Louis didn't say anything so Zayn sighed. "My sister has insomnia. It's not a bad thing, you just can't sleep. And there are ways to help it."

Louis shut his laptop, swinging his legs off the side of the bed to look Zayn in the eye. "How?"

Zayn shrugged, smiling faintly. "Doniya and I would go out in the backyard on the swings and we'd sing. When she started falling asleep, we'd hurry inside and pass out in the living room. Mum always found us down there and we had her convinced we sleepwalked."

Louis laughs with Zayn, remembering how he himself would get sleepy reading all the bedtime stories on his sisters' bookshelves. It would help, but he wouldn't sleep all night. Until their mum caught on and made Louis sleep in his own bedroom.

So the duo tried everything. Staying up and watching boring old movies that really gave them headaches more than anything, drinking glasses and glasses of warm milk that only made them discover Zayn is lactose intolerant, mugs of different herbal teas that left earthy tastes in Louis' mouth, and listening to sad songs that only made them both cry and miss their families. Nothing worked.

"Why don't we try it?" Zayn asked their second week of "anti-insomnia ideas" when Louis' head was in his lap.

"Try what?" Louis replied, trying not to drool on Zayn's knee because the fingers scratching through his hair were wildly soothing.

"Doniya and I would sing whatever came to mind-"

"I'm not singing, Zayn. I don't sing, and when I do it's not for other people to hear."

Zayn fell silent, now petting over Louis' hair instead of untangling every strand. "Well I'm not just 'other people' and neither are you. You don't see me auditioning for X Factor anytime soon. Right now, you and I are best friends and I want to help you."

Louis yawns, eyes screwing shut as some wetness slips past his eyelashes. "You are helping me, Z."

"Its not been enough though, has it?" Zayn argues, sounding more than a little frustrated at himself.

"Its been more than anyone else has tried," Louis snaps back, sharp little fingernails digging purposefully into Zayn's thigh. "Alright? I appreciate everything you've put up with because it isn't your problem. Your bedroom is all the way at the opposite end of the hall."

"It's my problem if I ever want cereal ever again," Zayn teases lightly, poking Louis' shoulder.

Louis gasps, so softly that Zayn might not have even heard it. "I'm sorry..."

"No, no, Louis I was just kidding. You've done _nothing_ wrong babe, I was joking."

Louis nods, positive that his hair and cheeks look absolutely horrendous from the petting and the quick tears.

"Well," he says briskly, sitting up and flattening out his hair. He doesn't look better, but he looks semi-presentable. "I'm going to my room to lie down. Night, Zayn."

"Wait, Lou," Zayn reaches out and grabs his wrist. "Sleep with me tonight? I mean it's the only thing we haven't tried."

Louis hesitates, staring down at Zayn's darker skin contrasting brilliantly against his paler arm. He'd been talking about getting a small tattoo right there where Zayn's hand is. Maybe he'll get his fingerprints. Weird thoughts.

"Can we sleep in your bedroom?" Louis mumbles, poking one of Zayn's knuckles and tracing the skin. He's honestly quite lovely. "I don't like mine, it's lonely and you've got pictures in yours."

Zayn grins, "C'mon babe."

Louis' tummy feels funny the entire time Zayn's hand doesn't leave his wrist, and when Zayn stands up from the couch Louis is in the way and with the coffee table against the back of his legs, Louis comes more face to face with Zayn then he ever had before. Chest to chest almost, if Louis weren't shorter.

The walk down the hall isn't awkward, because Zayn doesn't let it be awkward.

When he flicks on the light, Louis smiles. The wall is covered in haphazardly taped up pictures of superheroes and Zayn's friends and family from Bradford. There are bare spots where he's just painted directly on the wall, black ink in swirling patterns that look like night-time. The epitome of artistic and talented. There's a window that overlooks their street, just darkness with a few outlines of their neighbours houses and the yellow circles of street lamps. Zayn's bed is unmade and covered in coloured pencils and a notebook. Louis' ridiculously endeared.

"Right," Zayn says. "Forgot it looked so awful. I'm not cleaning it all right now because it's almost midnight, but we can just put the pencils on the desk."

Louis nods, picking up a handful of worn down pencils, red and blue and orange mostly. He accidentally poked his hand with a sharper one and pouts. Zayn laughs at him, tossing the notebook onto the desk without looking.

"Are you alright?" he's asks softly. Maybe Louis just heard it softly. "Tired?"

 _Not really_ , he wants to say, but he promised Zayn he'd try. "Yeah." _  
_

They decide that Louis will take the side that's closest to the cracked window, in case he needs air. He's not sure why he'd need air, he's trying to fall asleep, he's not sick. After they get settled and say their good nights and Louis' hearts feels like its slowed down enough for him to even close his eye, he feels Zayn's arm across his waist, heavy and surprisingly grounding.

"Z," Louis whispers, eyes still closed, too weary to open them again.

"Shh. It's alright, Lou. If I didn't mean to have a cuddle I would've had you sleep on the floor."

It makes Louis smile, because Zayn's being so lovely about this and trying to help, and his chest is against Louis' back but it's the only place they're touching and it makes Louis smile even bigger because he's falling in love so easily with this one beautiful boy. Zay's thumb presses into his hip briefly, and Louis feels like he's floating away, like every part of him is slowly relaxing.

He barely even feels Zayn's lips brush against the back of his hair.

-

Louis opens his eyes and he's lying in Zayn's bed in Zayn's room with sunlight streaming through the window and Zayn himself kneeling in front of him. 

"Morning," he says, sounding almost breathless. His smile looks like it could crack his face. It's pretty, and Louis decides quickly that he wants to see that smile more often.

"Morning?" Is it morning? That would explains the sunlight, but didn't they come in last night? The realisation practically slaps him in the face, and Louis sits up so suddenly he gets dizzy.

"Zayn? What time is it?"

"Ten thirty." _Ten thirty,_ Louis' heart is hammering in his chest.

"What time did we go to bed last night?"

"Midnight!" Zayn all but yells, grin on his face looking a bit wild. "Babe you slept ten hours!"

"Ten hours!" Louis bursts out laughing, relieved and shocked and so fucking happy. 

"I guess I have to sleep in here every night then?" It's meant to be a joke, but Zayn beams and Louis wants to give him the world and neither are sure to this day who leaned forward first, they just know they've never felt anything better than each other's lips.

-

(They decide they have some explaining to do. Zayn tells him that he never meant to call him babe, that it just slipped out one day but he decided to go along with it when Louis didn't seem to mind. Louis tells him that he's the first person to actually help him sleep, and that must mean they were destined to find each other. [Zayn definitely doesn't cry, and he definitely doesn't hide his face in Louis' shoulder because he's blushing so hard that you can see it.] Zayn teaches Louis how to draw so he can relax easier, and Louis teaches Zayn how to skateboard so he can have a little exciting fun. They end up spray painting the one spare room and are making plans to do Louis' room next since he unceremoniously moved into Zayn's bedroom. Maybe Zayn and Louis didn't have a whirl wind romance, but they had each other and that's really all they ever needed. Besides, rooms at opposite ends of the hall was a ridiculous setup anyway.)

(Zayn's the first to say I love you. He thinks Louis is already asleep when it just slips out, because he was tired. Louis kisses him for a good twenty minutes, muttering "I fucking love you so much" between every peck.)

**Author's Note:**

> This ACTUALLY sucked, oh my god. Unfortunately I'll be posting other stories for other ships so stayed tuned if you'd like.


End file.
